As the rabid-tongued stews in self-wrought misfortune, so does Okpella community simmer in a cauldron of hot broth.
However, the Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki has ordered the immediate shut down of Obu Mines in Okpella, Etsako East Local Government Area and ordered the arrest of two BUA cement staff.
The governor gave the orders on Wednesday when he visited the mine site and discovered that work was ongoing despite the directives from the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to stop work.
In a statement made available to us by its Group Head, Corporate Communications, O’tega Ogra, BUA said the governor’s action was a flagrant disregard to the court’s pronouncement on maintaining status quo at that particular site and wondered why there was no formal communication from the Edo State Government before the gestapo-style forceful shutdown of its site.
The statement reads in part: “We have been made aware that today, the Edo State Governor, in the company of some security operatives, visited one of our mining sites in Obu-Okpella, Edo State to effect a gestapo-style forceful shutdown of that mine despite a subsisting court pronouncement that the mine be allowed to operate. Upon reaching that mining site and not meeting any personnel or equipment, two BUA Cement employees were invited to the mining site to receive the governor. We later learnt that these employees were arrested upon arrival on the orders of the governor and taken away for no just reason.
“As it stands, we do not know why they were arrested but have requested our lawyers to secure their unconditional release immediately as these employees are innocent and have no knowledge of why they were being arrested.
“Now that one of our mining sites has been forcefully closed down by the governor without regard to the court’s pronouncement on maintaining status quo at that particular site (and without any formal communication from the Edo State Government), BUA as a responsible corporate entity has instructed its lawyers to report back to the courts on this latest developments and pursue all legal channels to enforce its rights.
“While the governor based the legitimacy of his actions on a purported stop-work order from the Ministry of Mines, BUA wishes to reiterate that there is a pronouncement of the Federal High Court sitting in Benin on December 5, 2017 that declared the stop-work order issued by the ministry as a contravention of the court’s directives to maintain status quo and thus deemed it illegal. The same court also threatened to arrest the minister who is the first defendant in the case if the stop work order continues to be pursued.
“We once again ask all parties to await the conclusion of judicial process as this matter is already before a court of competent jurisdiction.”
